Google scolded for “polite trademark bullying” of parody site

Feeling bad about it? Quit crying and go find a Google Hug.

The Peng! Collective is a Berlin-based activist group that specializes in "subversive direct action, culture jamming, civil disobedience, and guerrilla communications." As part of its participating in the recent Re:publica conference in Berlin, the group made a parody site presenting several new Google "products," including Google Bee (offering personal drones), Google Hug (location-based crowdsourced hug-matching), and Google Bye (online profiles for the afterlife).

It looks like Google's trademark lawyers are about as humorless as trademark lawyers for other tech companies. The company sent a cease and desist letter asking Peng to not only change the site, but to assign the domain name to Google.

The parody on the google-nest.org site has been replaced with a notice explaining it disappeared because of Google's demands. "Google is worried about their brand and the future of Nest Labs, which is in the business of making creepy products to collect even more data from you," writes Peng.

While the parody material that uses Google's logo is down, Peng isn't giving up the domain name so easily. Instead, the group is getting help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation—a public interest group that has often been aligned with Google on intellectual property issues.

That's not the case here. EFF lawyer Corynne McSherry responded to Google, calling the site "pure noncommercial political commentary" that can't be punished with trademark law. "Having foolishly started this fight, Google ought to apologize and end it," wrote McSherry in a blog post published yesterday.

Google didn't respond to a request for comment.

While the parody has been removed, those interested in reading it can easily view an archived version. In addition to the fake Google products, the parody page included small links at the bottom to Google's real "About Google" and "Privacy & Terms" pages, just as a real Google page would have.

"Having a bad day?" asks the fake product promo for Google Hug. "Chances are high that someone else is too. And they're probably not far away."

Google Bye promised to "help you make sure you’re remembered the right way," using Google's trove of personal data to formulate an online profile that lets you put your best foot forward when you die. Its tag-line? "So get busy living. We will handle the rest."